RATED NC-17 and R for many chapters. Please Leave This Site If You Are Under 18.This story is Adult in nature, with explicit language and includes graphic depiction of adult sexual behavior
and some depiction of violence.

Chapter 16
In Dreams

"I have my wand and it’s a beauty!" Welkin was grinning like the Cheshire Cat at Snape, as she and Dumbledore joined him at his table in
the Slytherin Commons Room.

She eagerly opened the box and unwrapped the dark green cloth it was wrapped in to display it to him. "Oak, unicorn hair core," she repeated from memory,
"Ten inches just like your…I mean like something else we both know," she corrected herself demurely, realizing there were students with big ears and loose
lips at nearby tables. "The carvings are gorgeous on this end," she pointed out the carved acorns and mistletoe design with a centered visage of Cernunnos,
the Horned God.

"This appears to be rather ancient," Snape said, examining it curiously, with a look of great surprise. He had not really expected Welkin to return from
Ollivander’s with a wand at all, much less one this interesting.

"Oak wood from the Holy Groves of the Druids – They have had this wand in stock for quite some time apparently," Albus informed Snape. "It practically
leapt into her hand," he added. "Ollivander was a bit astonished I think, although with him it’s sometimes hard to tell."

"So it’s a good one then?" Welkin looked at one then the other for confirmation. "I know it cost a pretty penny so it had better be."

"It is very much attuned to you, yes," Dumbledore assured her.

"Hot damn!" Welkin exclaimed with pleasure, startling the students at the nearest table.

"This is not a toy, Welkin," Snape admonished her quickly. "It is an instrument of great power and should be treated with respect. There will be no foolish
wand waving or gesticulating unless you are with a trained instructor. Is that understood?"

"Oh…I thought Severus would be…well, I guess that’s okay," Welkin said hesitantly. "I’m sure that you’re very good too."

Welkin glanced at the clock on the wall. "Oh crap! I told Luna I’d pick up Sully half an hour ago! I’ve got to go!" She stuffed her wand into her bag.

"Luna Lovegood has our child?" Snape looked agitated. "You left him with that nonsensical dunderhead? She is probably filling his head full of Nargles
and other ridiculous fabrications of that dolt of a father of hers. She is not a fit influence for Sullivan, Welkin," he lectured.

"For your information, Luna’s been babysitting him for weeks and he adores her. If you paid a little more attention to your son maybe you’d know these
things." Welkin stood regarding him with disapproval, one hand on her hip.

"I…I will make more of an attempt to engage with Sullivan," Snape promised, wishing she would stop frowning at him so severely.

"Good." Welkin favored him with her smile again. "That’s really all I ask." She bent to kiss his cheek. "See you both at supper." She sped off towards
Ravenclaw’s dormitories.

Albus was looking at Snape with amusement. This marriage was the most entertaining thing that had happened to him in a long while. "She certainly has
managed to tame you, I must say," Dumbledore told him. "I can hardly believe you are the same man who strikes fear into the hearts of so many of your students."

"I was merely humouring her," Snape claimed. "I find that verbally acquiescing at times is less tiring than asserting myself with her."

"The Muggles have an interesting term for it Severus. I believe they call it becoming ‘pussy whipped?"

"I am not familiar with that term," Snape lied, and abruptly changed the subject.

"I must apologize for Welkin. She is not aware of what a great honor you are bestowing on her by instructing her yourself," Snape said.

"Think nothing of it," Albus assured him. "She is obviously very proud of you and her heart judges you to be a greater Wizard than myself. I dare say she
actually thinks you are the greatest Wizard our world has ever produced. I can find no fault in such devotion, can you?"

***

"He did that deliberately!" Snape asserted, backing up with a grimace of disgust at his wet jacket, newly christened by his infant son.

"He did not," Welkin laughed. "I told you to put something over it while you’re changing him. He can’t help it. Little boys do that. He got me a couple of
times too before I wised up. Go change your jacket and I’ll finish this."

"I do not see how changing soiled nappies will create a bond between me and the child," Snape continued grousing as he removed his wet tunic and flung it
on the floor.

"Oh no," Welkin pointed at it and snapped her fingers. "You pick that up off the floor and put it where it’s supposed to go Severus Snape. To quote you - this
is our bedchamber, not a pigsty."

Snape scowled at her but slowly bent to pick it up and took it to the clothes bin in the water closet, muttering to himself.

"What sweetie? I can’t hear you." Welkin made short work of securing the diaper and laid Sully in his cradle, waving her hand to activate the floating butterfly
display that Hermione Granger had gifted the baby with. "That girl is so talented," Welkin marveled to herself as Sully immediately became entranced by the
brightly colored shapes circling above him.

"I said," Snape repeated loudly, as he returned from his appointed task, "that I am most certainly not pussy whipped!"

"Of course you aren’t. Who would ever say that?" Welkin agreed. She put her arms around his neck fondly. "You’re definitely in charge around here."

"Large and in charge," she added appreciatively, letting one hand drop below his waistline to trace a finger along the zipper of his trousers.

"You’re serious aren’t you?" Welkin suddenly realized. She stepped back and folded her arms. "I thought you were kidding. Who told you that you’re pussy whipped?
What idiot told you that?"

"Dumbledore," Snape replied sullenly.

"Fuck Albus!" Welkin exploded. "What the hell does he know about it? He probably hasn’t even seen a pussy in 100 years, much less been whipped by one!"

Snape considered her statement. "You may have a point."

"Of course I do. I respect everything about you. I always have, and I always will. Don’t you know how much I admire you Severus? If Sully grows up to be one
fraction of the man his father is, he’ll be very lucky."

Welkin was looking at him with genuine adoration and love-light in her eyes.

"I shall try never to disappoint you," Severus said, pulling her into his arms.

"You never could," Welkin assured him.

***

"Can I ask you something about the Dark Lord?" Welkin was a little reluctant to bring up the subject with Severus again, since he almost always avoided most
of her questions about that part of his life.

Snape shifted Welkin from his chest onto her back, staring down at her warily in their bed.

"You are very persistent with these questions of late. Is there a particular reason?"

"I just want to know, did he look like a man, or…something else?"

"Something else?" Severus repeated slowly.

"Yes. Something without human features. Something more…reptilian?"

"Why would you ask this? Who told you this?" Snape grasped her arms painfully, his eyes boring into hers with alarm.

"No one did. I saw it in my dreams. Severus! You’re hurting me!"

He released her and she rubbed her arms where his fingers had left their prints.

"Is it him? Is that what he looked like?" Welkin pressed him.

"How many times have you dreamed this?" Snape demanded.

"I don’t know. Three or four times since before Sully was born. What does it mean?"

Severus got out of bed quickly. "Get dressed," he ordered her. "We have to see Dumbledore immediately.

***

"Won’t somebody just tell me what this is all about?" Welkin pleaded, tired of all the questioning about her nightmares. Sully was getting cranky and so was she.

"Once again Welkin," Albus repeated, "Have you ever had dreams that came true? It is very important that you tell the truth about this."

"Well," she hesitated. It was a subject that she had avoided since she was quite young and her mother had warned her that the gift her grandmother had spoken
of was less a gift than a sin and a curse. With her strict religious upbringing, to be different equated to being sinful to her mother. Even without the dreams,
Welkin was always much too different - too much the other - to suit her straight-laced mother. And so, Welkin had learned not to talk about it, and finally, to
deny to herself that it even existed.

Welkin was the opposite end of the spectrum from Luna, perhaps one of the reasons why she favored the girl. Luna convinced herself that things existed which
did not exist. Welkin stubbornly convinced herself that things which did exist, did not.

"Please Welkin," Severus pleaded. "Tell us what we need to know."

She looked at him a long while, holding Sully and rocking him gently back and forth, as much to soothe herself as to quiet the baby.

"When I was young I used to have dreams. Sometimes they came true. My grandmother said all of the females in our family were born with a ‘double veil’ and that
meant that we could ‘see into things’ is the way she put it. Mama told me she was just a crazy, superstitious old woman."

"Double veil?" Snape asked Dumbledore.

"Another term for the caul which infrequently still covers the baby’s head and face after birth. To be born with a caul, which must be removed at birth, is a
signatory of the gift of second-sight," Albus explained. "To be born with a double caul is rarer still."

Albus turned back to Welkin. "Tell us again of the dreams you have had - and leave out no detail. I do not wish to alarm you Welkin, but if the Dark Lord is invading your
dreams, it is a threat to your safety, as well as to Severus and your child."